NEW YORK (AP) – Seneca Indian Nation is operating a Buffalo casino on ground that qualifies for use as a gaming destination, a federal appeals court said Tuesday.
The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan rejected decade-old claims brought by groups and individuals opposed to the operation of the casino built on nine acres of land purchased by the Seneca Nation in 2005.
The $130 million Seneca Buffalo Creek Casino opened in 2013 with 800 slot machines, 18 table games and three restaurants.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs had argued that the land did not qualify for use as a gaming resort, in part because it was newly acquired land subject to different rules than land that had been under Seneca Nation control for much longer.
In an email, Albany attorney Cornelius D. Murray said the plaintiffs were disappointed and had not yet decided whether to appeal.
“The effect of today’s decision is that Congress can effectuate a divestiture of state jurisdiction without expressly stating so and can do so without knowing where the land will be,” he wrote. “Now land sitting in the middle of downtown Buffalo is out from under control of city, county of Erie and State of NY. Alarming!”
In a release, Seneca Nation President Maurice John Sr. praised the decision.
“From day one, the Seneca Nation has operated the Seneca Buffalo Creek Casino in close cooperation with the federal government, the State of New York, and the City of Buffalo and in compliance with all applicable laws,” he said.
According to the release, a planned $40 million expansion of the casino is scheduled to start next month.
In an opinion written by Circuit Judge Christopher F. Droney, a three-judge panel agreed with a lower court judge that the casino was legally placed on the land.
The ruling noted that the Supreme Court has urged that laws designed to benefit Indian tribes be viewed liberally, and it said that Congress would have made clear that land such as that purchased by the Seneca Nation would not qualify for use in gaming if it intended it to be so.
“Congress – not the courts, not the states, not the Indian tribes – gets to say what land is Indian country subject to federal jurisdiction,” the 2nd Circuit said, quoting an earlier decision by the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver in another case.
Copyright 2015 The Associated Press.
